Disorganized
by Xerit
Summary: Organization XIII fell, and with it, the command structure for the Nobodies. But what happens when new Nobodies enter nonexistance? And how do they cope when they cannot feel?
1. Tragedy of the Razor Scream

**Disorganized**

Stories that never happened to people who didn't exist

by: Joshua Zediker

Chapter 1: The Tragedy of the Razor Scream

_Who am I? Where am I?_

The man opened his eyes, looking at the bleak city around him. There were no stars; nothing getting past the thick veil of clouds covering the sky. The air was cold and harsh, as though all warmth had been sucked from it by some unknown force. Shadows moved about on the walls, as though observing the man.

_What's going on? Shouldn't I be scared or curious?_

He sat up, inspecting himself now. He was wearing a black robe which zipped up to his neck, and had a hood attached to it. He stood slowly and walked over to a window, inspecting his reflection. His crimson hair fell across his left eye, hiding it from view. Beyond that, there were no distinguishing features. He touched the glass. Cold. Like everything else.

_Name...My name...it is Xerit._

Yes, that sounded right. Xerit. But how had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was a shadow engulfing everything, himself included. He couldn't remember his surroundings, his past, anyone he knew, or where he lived. But his name was Xerit. That was a start.

He shook his head. Something was still wrong.

_Why don't I feel? Where is my fear? My curiosity?_

He thought for several moments, then lashed out, his arm going through the window, following the blade of a katar that had appeared in his hand. It wasn't anger that made him do it, but rather the feeling that he would have otherwise.

"This is wrong," Xerit said aloud to no one. "This is wrong. I should feel. I should remember. I should know. What is wrong?"

The answer came in a faint thought. _Heartless._

As he thought that word, the shadows around him took form. Small creatures appeared around him, looking as though they were sizing him up. They must have liked what they saw, because Xerit got the distinct feeling they were awaiting orders. He looked to them, analyzing them. His eye moved to one in particular - appearing as a soldier - and he nodded, giving a silent command. The creature responded instantly, attempting to strike at Xerit with its armored foot. There was a flash and a shriek, and the shadow creature vanished, struck through the core by another ornate katar which had appeared in Xerit's hand. As the creature faded. Xerit noticed something. Where the being had died, a heart, torn in half, faded from view. He was sure as he watched it that he could feel something. Jelousy? Longing? He didn't care. It was a feeling.

Xerit nodded. He knew what he had to do.

He gave another silent command, and the other shadows leaping out at him. Any who neared him were torn apart instantly, his lethal blades ripping through them. As he saw and felt more and more of the hearts being destroyed, his insanity deepened. He knew that those hearts were what he needed, what he lacked. That's what kept him from being complete, and therefore they were what he would slaughter for.

Soon there were no more of the heartless he'd called to him. Xerit looked around, trying to find more, and still feeling empty. Even with all the heartless he'd massacred, he still felt empty. Even with all the hearts he'd destroyed, he still hadn't found his own. There had to be a way to fill his void. He started to focus. Perhaps he could summon more.

Nothing.

He kept focusing. There had to be something more. And there was. He discovered another force he could call upon. He called out to them, those like him, those who were empty. The nobodies.

Silver bodies appeared around him, taking the forms of soldiers and assassins. He could tell there were many others, but was unable to call out to them. It didn't matter to him. These ones would do. Now he had to find prey...

* * *

The darkness he traveled in dispersed, leaving Xerit to look at his new surroundings. He was in a small city now, known to itself and other travelers as Traverse Town. He inspected the buildings, wondering why this place seemed so familiar. There had to be something he could hunt; something that would release the hearts he needed. He began walking. There was movement around him, laughter coming from restraunts, and talking in the shops. People walked through the streets, paying Xerit no mind. Most didn't even seem to see him. A few individuals walked straight at him, and when he didn't move aside, they passed through him as though he were a mere illusion. He headed down an alley, wandering into a small group of youths. They smirked apparently able to see him, and thinking perhaps that he could be a good target for a mugging. They walked over, one of them grabbing at Xerit's shoulder. He didn't realize that his hand went straight through the man, and having assumed that he just missed he assumed a different position.

"Hey pops," the youth sneered, "ya gotta pay a toll to come through here. One hunded Munny, no less. And a gratuity is expected. So hand it over, and we don't make a mess of you." As he spoke, the others moved around, surrounding Xerit. Each of them pulled a knife, ready to attack. Xerit simply smiled, making the grin on the first youth's face fade from view. "You gonna pay or not?"

"Why should you pay them?" came a voice, going apparently unnoticed by the boys. "They already possess what you lack. Perhaps it is they who should pay."

The youth's face went from anger, to pain, to fear in moments. Xerit's katar was stuck in the boy's chest before anyone could see him move. There was no blood, but the boy fell to the ground, his face lacking any sign of life. The others backed away slightly, seeing their leader drop. Xerit began grinning as his assassin minions appeared in the alley, now surrounding the remaining youths.

"Now you shall pay, instead," Xerit said, smiling. "You shall give me your hearts. Make me whole, boys."

A shriek sounded from the alley, not from the boys but from the sheer speed of Xerit's movement. He dropped them in a heartbeat, their bodies falling onto the concrete. He watched them, waiting. It should happen soon. Where were the hearts? They did not come out of the bodies like they had from the heartless, but he knew these people must have had hearts. He could see the fear before they died. As he waited, he grumbled. something was wrong. The hearts didn't escape from the bodies when he killed them. He shook his head and hid the bodies. He didn't want anyone finding them and hunting him down. He began to wonder if there was another way to extract the hearts...

There was. He realized it immediately. With a single thought, he summoned them, a small militia of shadows. The heartless took form around him, their lust for hearts rivaling Xerit's own. He grinned, knowing that they would do exactly what he wanted. With a silent command, he sent the heartless out on a hunt for hearts. They would not be able to take them immediately. In fact, he would probably be lucky to get one each night. But it would be worth it. He was sure he could find his heart out among them. Once they were off, he began searching for a place to wait.

He spotted a belltower. A good location, he thought. He began heading for it when he bumped into a woman, probably heading home from dinner or some other event. She bowed to him. "I'm sorry, sir. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going..."

Xerit stared for a moment, before hurriedly raising his hood. By the time the woman looked up, his face was completely hidden. He nodded silently in acknowledgement of her apology, and then continued on his way. He wondered why he'd raised his hood as he walked. Something was different about her. Others hadn't noticed him, and some had walked straight through him since he arrived. But somehow she'd not only seen him, but touched him. Run into him, even. There had to be an explanation, but he'd focus on that later. Now he needed to find his heart. He needed to be whole.

* * *

Xerit sat patiently atop the belltower as the nights passed, one after another. The heartless - he had discovered - tended to escape his control once they went beyond a certain range, which had hindered his progress in the harvest of hearts. As it stood, only a few had been stolen, and Xerit still did not know how to extract the hearts from the heartless once they were taken. He'd heard rumors of a blessed blade which could destroy the heartless and actually recover the hearts instead of destroying them, but as of yet he'd heard nothing of where this blade may be or who possessed it. He rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger - another meaningless mannerism that he seemed to have retained.

He stood and lept from the belltower, landing on the street below and starting to walk. He looked about as he wandered, his feet taking him down a random street in the city. It was late at night now, so there were no people to pass through him as he walked. He looked around at the buildings and signs, examining them.

He suddenly stopped, staring at a house. There was a twinge in his mind, as though it were trying to feel something but still incapable of it. He could see movement inside. Someone was still awake, though he couldn't make out what they were doing.

As he stared, he felt his control over a distant heartless slip. He couldn't afford a loose one. He tore himself from the house, heading into the alleys and moving towards the stray shadow. He summoned his katars as he neared and rushed forward to the little demon. Without hesitation, he shoved his blades into it, wiping it out of existance.

He never once wondered why, seeing the heartless about to claim a heart, he had destroyed it instead of reassuming control over it. He simply returned to his belltower, ignorant of how he'd delayed his own designs.

* * *

He continued waiting atop the belltower. He didn't know how long he'd been there, now. With the inability to feel, he'd also lost all track of time. For all he knew, he'd been sitting and plotting for years now. He still had no idea how to extract the hearts from the heartless, and due to the disappearances, people had become more cautious, staying in at night and slowing his harvest of hearts even more. He grumbled a bit at his failure - another empty gesture.

Then something strange happened.

Spirals of darkness errupted from the ground all over the town. Heartless he'd never seen before tore their way into the world. He tried to exert his will over them, but there was no response. He could only conclude that another force was controling this army. Another like him? Or a senient heartless? He shook his head. It didn't matter to him. This force could ruin his designs in this world. Unable to exert control over the heartless swarm, he summoned his own nonexistant force. Nobodies faded into existance all over the city, beginning a ruthless assault against the demonic heartless which had spawned. Xerit glared down as the conflict began. Unfortunately for his plans, the small war had not gone unnoticed. People were panicing, rushing out of their monster-infested homes and into the fray.

"DAMNIT!!" Xerit summoned his katars and lept down, entering into the merciless and chaotic battle himself. His body moved swiftly among the inhuman warriors, a screech following him as he ripped through the air around him. His arms moved as he rushed about, ripping into heartless as he passed with his katars, and ignoring the paniced and injured humans completely. He had to eliminate them as fast as he could, or at least find the controller.

It didn't take him long.

A giant shadow loomed over the plaza he was in, its yellow eyes glowing as it watched the carnage and chaos below. Xerit abandoned his extermination campaign. He had a new target. He rushed up towards the monster, aiming to stab it through its head. The beast's massive hand lifted up and swung, knocking him off course. Xerit spun in the air and attempted a second charge. The creature blocked again, creating a shield of dark energy. Xerit focused, coating his blades with the same energy, extending them and striking at the shield. He could feel the barrier and blades conflicting, the shield slowly giving way beneath him. It would take a while, but soon he would punch straight through the dark barrier.

Then he heard the scream.

He broke away from the leader, shooting down into the fray and towards the scream, ripping through the heartless and nobodies alike with his augmented blades. He landed, his back to whoever had made the terrible noise. He began fighting off the heartless, creating a perimiter around the subject. The nobodies swarmed around him, following his subconcious command. The heartless couldn't penetrate the wall of nobodies. Until the subject gasped.

"Tier? Oh my god, Tier!?"

Xerit looked behind him, the name and voice ringing in his mind. He stared at he person he'd begun defending.

It was the woman.

The woman who had seen him.

The woman who had run into him.

The woman he'd seen in that house.

He stared in confusion. She could see him still, and she called him by another name, yet he responded. What was going on?

He didn't have long to think about it. Seeing the momentary failure of the defence, the giant above swung his hand down, ripping at Xerit's body.

Xerit looked down at his body. Where the claws had gouged him, his body was dissolving from existance. He looked up at the beastly heartless and glared. He could already tell there was no way to repair his decaying body, but he damn well wouldn't let this thing best him.

Xerit shot into the air, creating a sonic boom as he launched from the ground. He stopped in front of the heartless' face, staring into its eyes. "You think you've won, don't you?" he commented. "You believe that this shattered body cannot harm you. You believe that I'll just give into death." Shadows began to spiral around Xerit as he spoke, the horrible noise of a thousand screams surrounding him as he gathered the strength for one last strike.

The bodiless voices went silent for a moment, and Xerit doubled over, the shadows gathering inside his body. He gave a defiant glare to the giant.

"I will die. So will you all."

The power within him exploded, and his body along with it. Blades of sheer sound ripped through the heartless and nobodies below. The heartless giant let out a silent roar as the blades ripped through it, tearing it to pieces which faded from existance.

As the sound passed, the people of Traverse Town looked about, unsure what had happened. And not knowing that their savior never existed.

* * *

Imani Paros walked out to the cemetary the next day. Of all the people who had been hurt in the attack, thankfuly none had died. She was not coming to see someone off. She was coming to say thank you.

She knelt before the grave, setting a flower on it and smiling a bit. "I don't know how you did it," she said to the stone. "I don't know what happened, or what you could have done from beyond the grave, and after that monster took you from me. But I know I saw you last night. And I'm certain you were the one who saved us."

She spoke to the stone for a short time before giving a final prayer and standing. She walked away from the stone, and back into town. Back to her life, which she knew the man in the incription had saved.

_Tier Paros. 354-389. A kind soldier and loving husband. May his soul rest in peace._


	2. The Tangled Chain

Chapter 2:

The Tangled Chain

The hooded man looked around the room, staring at the empty masks and talismans on the ground. They littered the place, now; remnants of his experiments in heart-removal. He sighed a bit and shook his head, only doing so out of knowledge that he would have in the past. He needed to find a solution soon. It wouldn't be long before he was noticed. His manipulation of that person could only hide him for so long. Eventually someone would find him out, and would probably lead a riot against him. The man swung his arm, the blade of his weapon swinging across the room, tearing apart the masks and talismans. The less evidence the better, he figured.

He vanished into the shadows of the room, reappearing in an office. The woman he was manipulating was writing on her desk, unaware of his presence. With a swing of his arm, his chain wrapped itself around her massive neck, the blade hooking into the chain. He needed to find a way to accelerate his plans. Undoubtedly someone would figure him out soon.

-----------------------

The man looked about as he appeared in the bleak city. He felt strange, though technically even that would be inaccurate, since the fact was that he could not feel at all. Shadows moved around him in the city, their glowing yellow eyes watching him from every alleyway and every dark corner. He knew instinctively what they were: they were the heartless. Hearts which had descended into darkness, losing their identity. He also knew what he now was: a nobody. A remnant identity without a heart. And he even knew his name, which had been twisted for this new, incomplete form. He was Kornix.

He never questioned this new information as it entered his mind. After all, the more he knew, the greater his chances of finding a way to complete himself.

There was a twinge in his mind. More information. A skill he could use. He threw out his arm, and what appeared to be an ornate sickle appeared in his hand. He knew there was more to it than that, though. He snapped his wrist and the blade section disconnected, a chain following it out. His weapon was a kusari-gama, a chained scythe.

He smiled a bit. "This is an interesting place," he commented, though more to test his voice than to inform anyone or anything. Kornix looked about and called out to the darkness, a heartless of the Neoshadow caste being summoned near him. The black demon looked about. Kornix had not imposed his will over it, so it was free to do as it would. And as Kornix expected, it lashed out, trying to strike him down. Kornix swung his arm and the chain swirled in the air, acting almost as an extention of his own body. The blade of the kusari-gama swung around and sliced through the demon's neck, wiping it from existance.

The nobody thought for a while, looking at his weapon. It had more properties than simply a sharp blade. He could see that. But what were they?

Calling out more heartless be began striking at them, but to no end. Each heartless that was struck was wiped out, and the properties of the weapon remained hidden from him.

"Perhaps..." he thought aloud, "perhaps it requires something more. I am just a body, and the heartless are only corrupted hearts. If it's not acting any differently on them, perhaps it needs a body..."

-----------------------

"This cannot be ignored any longer!"

Kohaku the Water Dragon addressed the cleaning staff, assuming human form while he spoke with them. He had his suspicions that Yuubaba, the bathhouse's owner, was either turning a blind eye because of a threat, or perhaps simply had other concerns. He couldn't imagine what would be more important than the disappearing clientelle, but when he tried to confront her about it originally, she didn't seem to know anything. It seemed it would be up to him, the staff, and the few clients who had their own suspicions to get to the bottom of it.

"It's been going on for two weeks now," said Kohaku. "Our patrons are vanishing without a trace from this bathhouse. Even if they were turning invisible - which at least a few aren't capable of - there would be some sign of them leaving." He paced over to the balcony, looking down. "Word's getting out, too," he noted. "The clientelle is getting thinner. It won't be long before we have to shut down due to the lack of business..."

One of the employees piped up. "Kohaku," she said, "if there's no trace of the disappearance, then how are we supposed to find the source?"

The powerful spirit shook his head. "I'm not sure yet. Perhaps..." He thought for a moment. "Perhaps we can draw the source into the open somehow. It may be our best shot."

-----------------------

Kornix forced his way into the new world, through the darkness, looking about him. He appeared to have entered a rather large building, down in the furnace area. A slight movement caught his eye as he glanced about; a eight-armed old man was asleep at a bizzare apparatus, and his breathing was what Kornix had spotted.

The empty remnant walked over and inspected the old man, gathering as much information as he could about the subject. Obviously this was not a normal human - the human brain, he realized, would be unable to operate eight arms, since it had developed to work with only two. This person didn't appear like any being he could categorize with his sourceless knowledge. It was that very wellspring of information that would grant him the answer to his query: this person in front of him was a spirit. A nonentity, much like himself, but possessing a heart and somehow given a body. Something in this world solidified beings like that, which meant he was vulnerable here.

A voice seemed to whisper in Kornix's ear. "Perhaps that man can be of use to you," it commented. "you should see how."

Before Kornix could question the source of the voice, the eight armed man awoke, feeling Kornix's probing eyes on him. He looked over and gave a shout of surprise, lashing out at the cloaked nonentity with a few of his fists. Kornix lept back, swinging his kusari-gama and allowing instinct to take over. The chain wrapped around the man's neck, the blade hooking itself in one of the links. The man's angry swings ceased immediately, as though he had never even begun and as if he were completely unaware of Kornix's presence.

It took Kornix a while to realize what was going on, but he gave a laugh as the information entered his head. "That's it!" he shouted. "It makes sense now! If the blade and chain act as extentions of my body, then anything bound by them..."

He sent a mental command and the eight-armed man followed it, starting to work on his apparatus a bit. So that was his untapped skill, Kornix realized. When his weapon was around someone's neck, he could command them to act as he wished.

He grinned, imitating the appearance of a twisted genius - which wasn't far off the mark. If he could control people's actions like this...

-----------------------

"Three more in one day..."

Kohaku shook his head in frustration. It seemed that the whatever was causing the dissappearances was getting more common. Perhaps despirate...

The water dragon turned, finding a staff member - a tanuki who had just recently been employed - waiting behind him. The dog-spirit bowed as Kohaku took notice of him. "E...excuse me, sir," the dog stuttered. "There's been another dissapearance report, and..."

Seeing Kohaku's obvious frustration with this news, the tanuki continued, skipping to the information that would actually be helpful.

"The client that vanished was a yuki-onna. She was in the cold water baths, when another client saw her stand up suddenly and walk out of the room. The client tried to follow her, but she seemed to vanish down a hall. The other client said that he thought he saw something around her neck when she was walking. He said it looked like a chain."

Kohaku's expression changed from one of frustration to one of curiosity. "What was that?" he asked.

The tanuki repeated his explanation. "The client said that the yuki-onna had a chain around her neck that hadn't been there before," he repeated. "And that it remained there until she vanished."

Kohaku's eyes widened with understanding, and he ran past the tanuki, heading for Yuubaba's office. He threw the door open as he arrived. It was only for a moment, but he saw what he needed to see. As he entered, he cought a glimpse of metal retreating from the witch's neck. Once it was gone, Yuubaba turned around to see what the commotion was. "Kohaku?" she asked, perplexed. "What's going on? Why are you breaking into my office like that? Can't you at least KNOCK, you rude serpent?"

Kohaku didn't bother answering. He turned and headed downstairs to talk to the staff. He knew what he had to do, now.

-----------------------

Weeks had passed, now, since Kornix had found his way to this world and begun his experiments, but to no result. It seemed that he could not undo whatever this world did to give these roaming hearts form. He grumbled to himself as he swung the blade of his kusari-gama, wiping out the latest victims of his research and heading upstairs. He needed to make sure that the woman who ran the bath house didn't reveal the secret passages he's been using to abduct his victims through.

Kornix swung his arm as he entered the office, the blade finding its position around the huge woman's neck. Something was wrong, however.

"What is this?" Kornix asked to no one. No matter what command he sent to the woman, she would not respond. Could she have been dead? No, that was unlikely. Everything he'd seen suggested that these spirits could last an eternity short of being destroyed by an outside source. There was something else...

It was too late when he worked it out. Kornix spun and found a group of spirits behind him, including the woman he was meant to be controlling. imitating panic, Kornix looked back to his blade, and his eyes went wide.

Sitting where the woman had been was a small, raccoon-like dog spirit, holding a leaf. That's why the commands wouldn't go into place. His victim was not the person he thought it was.

"Well," said Yuubaba, lifting her hands. "It would seem that you found a way to control me without my name."

"However," continued Kohaku, "this cannot be allowed to continue."

The blue-haired boy assumed his true form - a large serpentine dragon, which snaked around the black-cloaked nonentity, blocking all escape routes. He opened his mouth and inhaled, and Kornix knew it was too late.

Each of the employees in the room including the old witch and blue dragon began drawing an unknown energy from the black-cloaked man. He could feel himself weakening by the second, and watched as his body seemed to fade beneath him. He tried to swing his kusari-gama, only to find that it was fading as well, the blade already gone from existance. Was this what he'd been striving to do? How could these people wipe him from existance when he couldn't even begin to unravel the laws of this world?

How...

Why...

At last, the final thread that kept Kornix's body together was pulled away, and his body was gone. A slip of paper fell to the ground where he had stood, and Yuubaba walked over, picking it up.

"Peculiar," she commented. "I've never heard of someone stealing their own name."

She dropped the slip of paper to the ground and went to her desk, checking over the documents she'd been manipulated to miss. Kohaku resumed his human form and picked up the paper, reading it curiously.

There was only one word on it. Undoubtedly the man's name.

_Ronik Keilen_


	3. Radiant Twilight

Chapter 3: Radiant Twilight

Nothing Happened.

This was the truth of the matter, yet events would still be influenced by it.

There was a thud in the silent city, as it received a new visitor. An individual in a black cloak, who stood up from where they'd landed, thrown from the dark realm. The figure began to look about its new surroundings, its cold gaze hidden by the black hood of its robe. Stepping toward one of the dark, empty buildings, the figure reached up, pushing its hood back.

The figure was a woman, her silver hair tied back, now freed from the hood. She reached to the glass, feeling it.

"Where am I?" she wondered aloud. She instinctively knew that no one was there to hear her. This place was as empty as she was. It was no city. A city needed people. This was a ruin, at best.

She began walking the shadowed streets, looking around. She felt no curiosity, no fear, no confusion. Nothing entered her mind but information, including a name. Serxani. She didn't know where the name came from, but it was as good as any, she supposed.

Another fact entered her mind: the manner of her creation. The creatures known as Heartless. She had faced them at some point, but the details of the encounter seemed to be clouded in her mind. Indeed, she realized it was odd that she had memories of before her creation. But the memory of the Heartless nagged at her. There was something important about them.

She stopped walking and looked at her hand. While thinking of the Heartless, she'd felt a slight twinge in her body. Giving her hand a wave, she sent a wave of power through the darkness she'd come from. Hearing the call, the shadows of the city began to materialize, growing from the ground into yellow-eyed creatures, some large, some small. She recognized them immediately. These were the Heartless.

Although she felt no true anger, she gave a scream of imitated rage, swinging her hand again. As she did, a silver staff formed outward from her palm, quickly entering her grip. She continued the swing instinctively, and called on the power she'd used to call the Heartless. Doing so caused a reaction with the staff: a bright flash eminated from the tip as a bolt of lightning lashed out, ripping away the Heartless before her.

So, that was her power. She looked to the remaining creatures, all of which were looking her over, constantly sizing her up. She swung the staff again, and a new reaction occurred. Flames erupted under a second group of the Heartless, burning them away. A third swing of the staff came, and the final group was frozen solid and shattered.

Serxani smiled in mock satisfaction. "This would be entertaining," she commented, "were I able to feel that emotion." The smile faded and she closed her eyes, seeking the darkness for anything else. She found what she was looking for. Many places, which unlike the dead city she was in, held people which had what she lacked: a heart. Finding the nearest, she opened a gateway into the dark realm and passed into the shadows.

* * *

Serxani didn't know the former significance of the town she'd stepped into, the portal of darkness closing up behind her as she exited. After all, it was before her creation. But even now, the sun of Twilight Town was caught in its eternal position between night and day.

She took up a seat on a fountain's edge, watching the people pass by. Most didn't even seem to realize she was there. The few that did would give a slight glance in her direction, and then give a shrug, as if wondering what it was that had caught their attention. The city seemed oblivious to her presence. She smiled, mimicking satisfaction with the situation. As long as they were unaware of her, she could do whatever she pleased in her attempts to get a heart for herself.

Unfortunately, she didn't know where to begin. She knew that the heartless could steal hearts, but when she'd destroyed them, the hearts seemed to have been destroyed with them. She knew that her magic could probably kill any of these people, but she lacked a method of heart-extraction. She summoned her staff and gave it a swing, blasting a rock in the distance out of mock frustration. Her first thought was to wait until night and set the heartless loose, but after several hours, she abandoned this idea. The sun hadn't moved an inch since her arrival, and the streets were already thinning, the people apparently having some other method of telling the time.

She began exploring the town, hoping something would catch her attention and give her an idea. It didn't take long. A massive clock tower stood over her. This must have been the way people knew what time it was, lacking the sun to guide them. Drawing her staff from the air once more, she leapt, using a wind spell to propel her to the face of the clock. She inspected the face. It was an ordinary enough clock. There seemed to be a path from the inside, probably used for maintenance – although the odd spots on the ledge she was standing on suggested that the city's youth had found another purpose for it.

"It seems to draw people to it"

Serxani spun, looking for the source of the voice. Had she imagined it? No one could see her here, she'd learned that much. So perhaps the voice had been speaking to someone else. But all the same, it had performed its purpose. The voice had been correct: there was an odd attraction to this clock. Perhaps she could use this to her advantage.

* * *

The eternal twilight did nothing to help Serxani track the time she'd been working on this, now. She knew it must have been many hours, perhaps even days. It was fortunate that in all that time, no one had felt the need to investigate the odd flashes of light created by her spells. Perhaps, like her, only a few people were capable of noticing them.

However, her preperations were now complete. She stood back and looked at her creation. She wasn't amazed or proud; after all, she lacked the ability to be either. But she was certain that the experiment could begin, and that it would yield results soon enough.

She stepped out to the ledge and gazed down on the town. In the time she'd been working, she'd noticed a few youth come and go, none of them apparently noticing her device. Probably because it just looked like more clockwork to them. She wondered if their hearts would come to her.

"Why think of it?" she asked herself, turning back to the clock. "It doesn't matter who I affect. Until I complete myself, I can't feel remorse anyway."

She stepped inside and lifted her staff, a bolt of lightning arcing to the clock's new addition. The salvaged gears began turning, the crystals embedded in the device beginning to resonate with her magic. It became synced with the movement of the clock around it, starting to tick away, its sound mixing with that of the surroundings.

But something was wrong.

She couldn't feel fear, but the sudden change in the atmosphere around her put her on guard. This was not what she had planned for. The device was calling out to something, but the hearts of the townsfolk were not what it was drawing to itself.

It was the heartless.

Serxani lifted her staff and gave a swing, a flurry of lightning bolts spreading outward. Heartless were struck from the shadows around her, some of them not even fully materialized yet. For some reason – rather than attracting the hearts of the townsfolk as the clock itself seemed to, her device was drawing out the darkness of the world, and giving it form.

"What the hell is going on!?" she yelled, releasing another volley of spells to keep the gathering monsters from taking form. "The device shouldn't be calling you! I don't need you!" A screech caught her attention: a neoshadow-caste heartless had formed behind her and lept, apparently trying to strike her. It had little success. It froze into a block of ice mid-air, and fell crashing down onto the gears below.

She needed to stop this incursion. Although the device seemed to be following its purpose to an extent, it had apparently tuned into the wrong part of the heart, only attracting the darkness. If this kept up, the world itself could potentially collapse, its darkness being drawn out by the machine. And if that happened, she would have to start from scratch. But if she pulled her attention from the heartless, they would undoubtedly overwhelm her. So how could she stop the device?

As luck would have it, she didn't need to. It seemed that her work had been incomplete. The device fell out of its synchronization with the clock, and the heartless began to fade, lacking the beacon to guide them. Giving a sigh of imitated relief, Serxani sat down. She was sure that at no time in her life would she have been as relieved as she would have been now. A thought that only reminded her of her inability to feel.

She stood and began her work again. She needed to learn what she'd done wrong. After all, she couldn't afford another incursion like that.

* * *

Nothing.

Serxani shook her head, sitting on the ledge of the clock tower. Every check she'd made, every scenario she'd visualized, every theory she'd come up with couldn't seem to explain the error. Perhaps there was more to the clock's attraction than she could work with.

"Why am I even still here?" she wondered aloud. "This clock attracts people. Has it attracted me as well? And if so, how did it attract something that doesn't exist?"

She sighed and looked down at the town. She began to wonder how many others had done this. How many of them were still down there. How many had passed on or moved away. And how many had been looking for answers, just like her.

She blinked. That wasn't right. How could she be having such thoughts?

She stood and faced the clock, looking up at its face.

"Sentimentality requires emotion," she stated to the machine. "Emotion requires a heart. I lack a heart, so how could I be sentimental?"

She had no time to continue wondering. As soon as the final word left her mouth, she heard the machine activating again. Her eyes went wide. No modifications had been made to fix the error, and although the device would undoubtedly lose synchronization as before, it still meant that she would be facing a sudden heartless surge. But who could have activated it?

She waved her hand, bringing the staff to her once more. It was too late to stop the device now, though. Already, the heartless had been called, and several were moving out of the clock toward her. She would have to deal with them, first.

A burst of flame came forth from her staff, striking the first few creatures, and breaking on the last, which held a massive shield to ward it from the attack. Serxani raised her weapon for another attack, but the sound of shattering glass behind her drew her attention. More of the heartless had forced their way out, and now she was surrounded on the ledge.

She could only think of one escape, so she leapt, aiming her staff down to support herself with a wind spell. But as she looked up, she found that the action would soon be rendered meaningless.

A large, draconic heartless swooped down on her and knocked the staff from her hand, causing her to begin falling.

And for a moment, she was afraid.

But a smile appeared on her lips as she fell. The experiment had failed. And soon, she would return to the void. But it didn't matter. She felt. And in that moment, she remembered. And at least for that moment, she was Rinesa again.

And then, there was nothing.


End file.
